Farmers Wife or Elm Creek

I am thinking of starting a sampler quilt.  I have been inspired by the many bloggers doing Farmer’s Wife quilt blocks.  I have had the book for at least a year and didn’t get inspired to do the blocks until I saw others doing them with such bright and cheery fabrics.  Funny thing though is that every time I try to pick out some fabrics for the blocks I go to civil war fabrics or calicos.  I recently bought a Baby Go! cutter and one die that cuts 2-1/2 inch squares, triangles and a larger square.  I thought I would get the most use from this die and I think it was a wise choice.  Well, I didn’t realize that the cutter doesn’t come with a cutting mat so I ended up waiting another week for the mat to arrive then found that I ordered the wrong size for my die.  A trip to JoAnn’s is a 45 minute drive so I waited until I had a day off work and a grocery shopping list and errand list (with a trip to JoAnn’s on it), and finally I am in business.

I noticed that the Contrary Wife block was done with 2-1/2 inch blocks so I got out the Baby Go! and went to work.  Every triangle matched up perfectly!  Now I will have to search for more blocks I can make with this die.

Another sampler quilt that I got a book for and not done anything with until recently is the Elm Creek book for Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler quilt.  There are a few blocks that are also in Farmer’s Wife, but just a few and since each book has over 100 block patterns that is pretty amazing.  I made the Flight Block from the book.  Both books use 6 inch blocks too so I am thinking that I will choose my favorites from both books and combine them into a sampler, but what would I call it?

The best part of doing a sampler is that you learn so many different methods in the process and you don’t get bored doing the same thing over and over.  A box of chocolates are pretty great because they are all different, so different blocks should really make a quilt fun and special.

I think before I really take on either one of these projects though I had better finish up a few other projects first.  Meanwhile, it will be fun playing with a block or two once in a while to keep me entertained.  Right now I am spending more time in the garden than the sewing machine where I found this double daylily quite entertaining.  Today, though, I went fishing for a few hours and I caught 21 fish!  Now that was entertaining!!!

ferne